Hauling attachment for tram-cars.



J. R. FLEMING. HAULING ATTACHMENT FOR TEAM CARS. APPLIGA'I'IOH FILED FEB. 2, 1911.

1,011,336, I Patented Dec. 12,1911.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH cov, WASHINGTON. n c.

JAMES R. FLEMING, 0F SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

HAULING ATTACHMENT FOR TEAM-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 2, 1911.

Patented Dec. 12, 1911.

Serial No. 606,252.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMEs R. FLEMING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Scranton, in the county of Lackawanna and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Hauling Attachment for Tram- Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the means for attaching the draft animals, (usually mules), to mine cars and the like; and has for its object to provide a device of this nature which, when a car has been pulled to the head of an incline, or to a point where a hauling cable or locomotive is to be coupled to it, the starting ahead of the car, while the mule is still coupled thereto will act to instantly and automatically release the mule, so as to prevent it from being dragged, and thereby seriously injured or killed, as frequently happens under present conditions.

I attain my object by constructing the attachment in the manner illustrated in the accompanying drawings,.in which- Figure 1 presents a side elevation of a mine car with my hauling attachment applied thereto; Fig. ,2, a side elevation of my attachment in its approved form; Fig. 3, an end view thereof; Fig. 4, a sectional view on the line 00-00 in Fig. 2; and Fig. 5, side and end elevations, respectively, of a modified form of the attachment.

Like numerals designate like parts in the several views.

It is now the usual practice to couple the mule to a staple, or pendant U-shaped bar attached to the side sill of the car near one end, by means of a hook and chain connected to the harness; whereby the car may be drawn from that point on the car in either direction. In Fig. 1 I have shown my attachment as fastened to the side sill at A in the customary position. This attachment preferably consists of a casting having two offset crescent shaped hook receiving surfaces, 1 and 2, united to a body portion 3 having a fiat surface 4, which rests against the side sill. The body portion is provided with two bolt holes 5, around which, on the attaching side 4, are formed bosses 6 to enter counterbores in the side sill; whereby, when the attachment is fastened in place by bolts or wood screws, these bolts or screws are relieved from strain due tothe longitudinal pulls on the attachment. The oppositely disposed hook receiving surfaces, 1 and'2, are concaved toward one another, and also on their downward sides, so that they are substantially in the form of crescents, the horns, 7 and 8,v of which, respectively, lie in lines inclined upwardly in the direction of the draft.

When attaching a mule to the car the hook 9 on the draft chain is dropped by the driver into the pendant position shown by the broken lines at 9 in Fig. 2, with the point of the hook inserted back of the receiving surfaces 1 or 2, according to the direction in which the car is to be drawn. When the mule is started ahead the hook rides up the crescent into the position shown in the full lines, according to the angle which the draft chain assumes when the pull is placed upon it. When the pulling strain is released, as when the animal stops, or the car'runs ahead, the hook will ride down the receiving surface into position 9 If the car continues on, the hook will ride over the point 7, and drop to the ground, thereby automatically releasing the animal from the car regardless of the driver.

In order that a mule may be attached to a car at either side, a duplicate attachment A will be fastened to the opposite side sill, preferably adjacent the diagonally opposite end of the car.

Instead of forming this attachment in one piece from cast metal, it may be bent up from a round bar, as shown at Fig.- 5, in which I have shown the attachment formed for draft in one direction only; this form of attachment being shown asv applied to the car at B in Fig. 1, the curved hook receiving portion 10 being set in the direction of draft from that end of the car; it being understood that a similar but reversely formed attachment will be fastened either at the same end of the car or at the opposite end where the attachment A is shown fastened. In this form of the attachment the receiving surface formed by the bend 10 of the bar is set outwardly from the side sill a sufficient distance by the offsets 11; which offsets, at their ends, are bent at right angles and flattened to form the eyes 12 by which the attachment is fastened to the side sill. The action of the draft hook when placed in engagement with this form of the attachment will be the same as before described.

Without, therefore, confining myself to any particular manner of constructing the attachment, what I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. A hauling attachment comprising a member fastened to the side of a car and having a hook receiving surface concaved at one side in the direction of draft, the opposite side being open whereby the hauling hook is adapted to hang vertically in a plane transverse of the car when the hauling line is slack, and to be automatically disengaged from said attachment when the pull is in the direction opposite to the normal draft.

2. A hauling attachment comprising a member fastened to the side of a car and having a hook receiving surface concaved downward and at one side in the direction of draft, the opposite side being open whereby the hauling hook is adapted to hang vertically in a plane transverse of the car when the hauling line is slack, and to be automatically disengaged from said attachment when the pull is in the direction opposite to the normal draft.

3. A hauling attachment comprising a member fastened to the side of a car and having two hook receiving surfaces concaved toward one another, the sides opposite the concaves being open, whereby the hauling hook is adapted to hang' vertically in a plane transverse of the car when the hauling line member adapted to be fastened to the side sill of a car and having a crescent shaped hook receiving surface offset from the side sill, the horns of the crescent being set in a line inclined upwardly in the direction of draft whereby the hauling hook is adapted to hang vertically in a plane transverse of the car when the hauling line is slack, and to be automatically disengaged from said attachment when the pull is in the direction opposite to the normal draft.

5. A hauling attachment comprising a member adapted to be fastened to the side sill of a car and having two integrally formed crescent shaped hook receiving surfaces offset from-the side sill and oppositely disposed to one another, the horns of the crescents being set in inclined lines which intersect above the center of the member, whereby the hauling hook is adapted to hang vertically in a plane transverse of the car when the hauling line is slack, and to be automatically disengaged from said attachment when the pull is in the direction opposite to the normal draft.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

J. R. FLEMING.

WVitnesses:

EUGENE DIVEN, M. E. VERBEoK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. i 

